DVD Review: ‘Like Crazy’ (2011)
Like Crazy is one of those indie movies that garnered a great amount of buzz from last year’s Sundance Film Festival and I just don’t really see why. The basis for any romantic movie to work is an appealing central couple and we are never really given one in this film by writer-director Drake Doremus. Felicity Jones was praised for her performance and rightfully so, but her co-star, Anton Yelchin, is so low key he is barely there. Their chemistry is nearly non-existent and their underdeveloped characters prevent this romantic drama from being more than intermittently cloying.
Our two lovebirds, Jacob (Anton Yelchin) and Anna (Felicity Jones), meet-cute as college students at UCLA. The two soon fall in love and are so idyllically perfect for each other (or so we are told) that Jacob builds her an ugly, uncomfortable-looking chair and she oozes with joy. But by the end of their senior year, the two must face a life-shattering obstacle: Two months of being away from each other because Anna’s student visa is about to expire. Rather than trying to do the impossible, she decides to break the law and overstay her visit. When she is subsequently not allowed to reenter the US a few weeks later, our love-stricken pair must embark on a passionate and sometime exhausting quest to be together once again. This is what I call real drama!
Like Crazy is the latest in this recent trend of romantic dramas depicting the flaws and vulnerability of young love. It is much less The Notebook and much more Blue Valentine if you catch the drift. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that but unlike these aforementioned movies, Jacob and Anna’s central romance, though cute, is superficial and unexciting. Doremus reportedly went into filming with 60 pages of notes and no script, relying on his two lead actors to improvise off each other but this resulted in such low-key characters that it was sometimes frustrating to watch their lack of chemistry and passion. If the characters are so hopelessly in love as it is suggested throughout the movie, where was the sense of urgency needed to convey that?
Had I been Anton Yelchin, I would have moved heaven and earth to do what needed to be done! He is a likable actor but his performance here mostly consists of him looking gloomy, longingly staring into the distance or drawing more ugly chairs in his notebook. His character could well be the male version of Bella Swan because he is nearly as much of a blank sheet. This leaves Felicity Jones having to carry nearly all the emotional heft of the movie, a feat she somehow manages to accomplish. She rises above the tepid material, giving a much more substantial and compelling turn than her co-star, maybe because she is naturally so adorable.
However, the main issue I had with the movie can be retraced to one aggravating decision: The movie nearly immediately starts with a montage of the couple falling in love. All the excitement, passion, chemistry and reasons for the protagonists to be together are condensed into a two-minute montage. For me, most of the appeal of watching this kind of romantic sap is getting to know the protagonists. A lot of execution flaws can be forgiven when you care for the central couple but I need to feel something. Sadly, not only did the narrative cut to the chase way too early but it severely hampered my desire to grow fond of the characters.
This is not to say Like Crazy doesn’t have moments that just click. The film proceeds along pleasantly enough when the two lovers are actually communicating. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to happen very often whether they are sitting right next to each other or being a half-globe apart. A rare poignant instance results in Jones tearfully joking on the phone that Yelchin should just “drop by” her place, and he replies he will be there in half an hour even though she is thousands of miles away.
Drake Doremus’ over-reliance on montages and the lack of solid direction prevents Like Crazy from being more than an oddly contrived and shallow attempt to depict a realistic romance.
C+
Have you seen the movie? What did you think?
20 Comments
Just rented this today. Looking forward to checking it out tonight.
Hope you like it Max
Looking forward to your take!
I will have to disagree on that on the chemistry issue. I thought they had great chemistry and I thought the main focus of the movie was not to show them falling in love but show how this young love was not sustainable as time pasted, which they come to realize in the end.
http://life-between-films.tumblr.com/post/12802240516/likecrazy-film-review
You are possibly right Shala but then why reunite them at the end and leave it open-ended? In your review (I read it
), you say that you interpret the flashbacks as a divide between them but I actually took it as them being apart for so long and remembering why they loved each other in the first place.
I also had issue with the fact that despite all the montages, you don’t really have a feel for how much time is passing by. It’s supposedly many years but from a narrative standpoint, it feels like a few months at most.
Thought you might have problems with the beginning, but really thought you would like it more as it went on. Chemistry is a funny thing. I thought they had wonderful chemistry, but it’s one of those things that people can almost never agree on.
And I’m not sure what you could expect out of Yelchin’s character to do in that situation other than move to England, which I believe they did discuss it at a time.
I’m probably coming down too harsh on the movie in my review. It’s a perfectly watchable movie and for the most part, pleasant enough.
As for Yelchin’s character, hell yea I would move to England. It’s not like you can only be a furniture designer in Los Angeles, especially once you have the clout to start your own business. But then I guess, the movie would end after 30 minutes so it’s another of those contrivances that bogged down the movie. His character was frustrating mostly because of the things he wouldn’t do: Talk to her, answer her phone calls etc… If he misses her so much, why is he being suck a d*ck?
I guess I was expecting something more hard-hitting with bigger highs and lows. Watching the trailer, you would think it would something a lot more poignant and sentimental.
Not saying that I wouldn’t try to move to England in that situation, but I believe they talked about it and thought it wasn’t the right permanent solution. And by the time they figured out that a move like that would be an option, the relationship was hitting a rough patch.
Gosh I still haven’t reviewed this one even though I saw this long ago. I like it a bit more than you Castor but I didn’t LOVE it as much as I thought I would. I felt like it’s a bit aimless at times and too indulgent, but I do think the lead actors have a nice chemistry that felt effortless. It is quite irritating to see Felicity’s character though and the whole VISA thing makes me feel nostalgic about my student days having to deal w/ student visas and all that hurdle. Anyways, I think it’s worth a watch and it’s always nice to see a romantic film that isn’t a rom-com!
When I watch romantic movies like this, my main desire is to be carried away emotionally. When I went to see Blue Valentine a bit more than a year ago, I was totally blown away by it. At the end, when Ryan Gosling was tearfully begging Michelle Williams to give him another chance in the kitchen, I might as well been yelling at the screen: “MICHELLE WILLIAMS, TAKE RYAN GOSLING BACK OR I SWEAR I’M GONNA SLIT MY WRIST!!!”
Let’s just say I just never came even close with Like Crazy ahaha
Oh now you just gave away the ending of Blue Valentine! I haven’t seen that one Castor [grumble, grumble]
Just kidding, I don’t think I’ll be seeing it anyway but you’re right I was not as emotionally invested in the characters in this one as I thought I would.
Ahah nah, I didn’t spoil it
You should definitely Blue Valentine, one of the very best films of 2010.
Nice review Castor. I also didn’t find it completely believable, although I did like the ambiguous ending. I just couldn’t get over the idea that they were so cavalier –to the point of being clueless–about how cruel the immigration system is, and then to make it worse I thought they each fit better with their other lovers!
Yea the way she said she was going to stay beyond her visa expiration date and he was like “ok” was so cavalier it was almost too unrealistic.
Nice wreite up my friend.
I am not really wanting to see this one, as I am known for being a crier… but from your review I may just give it a go… Will I cry?
Ahah Scott, see I was expecting this to be a tearjerker but it’s really not so I don’t think you will shed tears but what do I know lol
Silence moments together made it feel quite real, although I didn’t think the romance was as strong as we were told it was, because they so quickly found other dates, but I guess they were trying to move on. A very modern film due to the global relationship.
Oh yea, another issue I had was that we have no good sense how much time has passed. They did find other people to date but like many other things happening in the movie, I wasn’t quite sure how much time had passed.
I actually kind of like this movie. Agree that it’s unpleasant that they put all the sweet romantic scenes in the front and left the bitter ones after that. But I guess they want to show what it likes in LDR relationships in reality. I read that it’s from the director’s real experience.
Yea it’s supposedly from the director’s own experience. I don’t mind that the good parts are mostly at the beginning, but for me, the problem was that there were too little of them for us to fully bond with the characters. It feels like most of the movie was almost a music video (which is probably why the trailers feel much more effective than the movie itself)
Great review, Castor. The trailer kind of turned me off on this one, but I have a feeling I will end up seeing it someday. Can’t say I am expecting much, though.
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